Re: the burqa ban
Aug. 24th, 2016 01:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nairiporterI hear people speak of social norms being imprinted into women's mentality from early age, confining them to a narrow set of rules beyond which they cannot escape, unless they should risk being ostracised - and then those women believing they are making choices freely, while actually being confined within those social frames. Muslim women and headgear being the example...
But what about the so called Western women and all those social norms that they are being confined to? Be smart, beautiful and attractive and kind, behave confidently, be successful at work, look after the kids and create an impression of a coherent family - and if she doesn't, she becomes labeled an outsider, hippie, loser. I have seen this with the young kids I work with at school - they are supposed to have good looks, be dominant alphas among their peers, possess the newest clothes and gadgets, lest someone decide they are poor good-for-nothings, and kick them out of the "gang". In which case they are doomed to be forever on the losing side.
If people in our societies believe social oppression could be battled or mitigated by forceful laws banning people from certain arbitrarily defined "undesirable" behaviour, looks and clothes, then they are really as superficial as they look, and they've deserved all the problems and turmoil stemming from the social marginalisation of entire groups of people.
But what about the so called Western women and all those social norms that they are being confined to? Be smart, beautiful and attractive and kind, behave confidently, be successful at work, look after the kids and create an impression of a coherent family - and if she doesn't, she becomes labeled an outsider, hippie, loser. I have seen this with the young kids I work with at school - they are supposed to have good looks, be dominant alphas among their peers, possess the newest clothes and gadgets, lest someone decide they are poor good-for-nothings, and kick them out of the "gang". In which case they are doomed to be forever on the losing side.
If people in our societies believe social oppression could be battled or mitigated by forceful laws banning people from certain arbitrarily defined "undesirable" behaviour, looks and clothes, then they are really as superficial as they look, and they've deserved all the problems and turmoil stemming from the social marginalisation of entire groups of people.
